


My Best Four Years

by NarryEm



Series: Love Comes So Slow [2]
Category: 5 Seconds of Summer (Band), One Direction (Band)
Genre: Anal Sex, Fluff, M/M, Rimming, Smut, cancer patient Zayn
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-03-03
Updated: 2014-03-03
Packaged: 2018-01-14 02:42:10
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,916
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1249765
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/NarryEm/pseuds/NarryEm
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Louis is fresh out of school and everything is looking better for him and Zayn.</p><p>For now.</p>
            </blockquote>





	My Best Four Years

**Author's Note:**

> title from "Ronan" by Taylor Swift.

Louis smiles for the hundredth time in the past five minutes as his mum demands another picture. His cheeks have started to hurt and all he wants is a way out of this torture.

"Take one of us please, Jay?" His saviour asks.

The newly grad of Oxford School of Medicine sighs in relief. It's Zayn, his boyfriend of four years.

"Hi babe," Zayn says before he kisses him.

One of the things that Louis loves the most about his boyfriend of nearly four years is that he is the epitome of unconventional. Louis is dressed in this ridiculous gown and cap for his graduation and he does _not_ feel very smart in the miles of fabric he's drowning in but Zayn seems very determined to get his hands on Louis' bum. With a grunt, he manages to hitch Louis' legs around his hips and spins him around a couple times as they continue to kiss. He soon nearly drops Louis but that doesn't Louis from smiling fondly at Zayn. Just the fact that Zayn can lift him up means a lot to him.

"Hello. You're now looking at the newest and fittest doctor in all of England," Louis says with a wink.

"Not sure about the second part but congrats on making it through," Zayn says, kissing his cheek."

"Mmm love you too," Louis replies, smiling. It's unfair, how simple things like a chaste cheek kiss can make him blush and his heart flutter as though it were the first time it happened years ago.

" _Mein tumse pyaar karta hoon, jaan,_ " Zayn says, which Louis has learnt means, 'I love you, my life.'

"Louis," Trisha says, "Congratulations, darling. I say a family dinner is in order."

It's still daunting at times, how both their families treat them as though they are engaged or something already. They have joint family dinners and the girls have grown to be as close as though they were related by blood. Waliyha and Lottie love wasting money at the shopping malls and the twins and Safaa go to the same school. It's really adorable how their families have become this huge family with more than enough girls and few men.

"Sure, Trisha. At ours then?" Jay says, and they go off chattering amongst themselves.

"I guess there's no getting out of that one," Louis grumbles, burying his face in Zayn's shoulder. He feels the taller man's shoulders shake as he laughs softly.

"It is your day, Lou. Let's celebrate PG first and then we can go to our flat to proper celebrate it," Zayn whispers into Louis' hair.

Louis pulls back and sees something playful and evil shine in Zayn's hazel-brown eyes. "I _love_ the sound of that."

 

 

-

 

 

The dinner is alright. Jay insists that Louis and Zayn stay for a drink of two but Zayn says that he has a deadline for his comic books coming up shortly. Louis is so proud of Zayn for that. Zayn has always had a passion of comics and now he has a short deal with their local bookstore. He has to produce an issue every month and the sum he gets paid is quite good.

Trisha and Jay exchange a look and Jay tugs Louis away as he is putting on his shoes. With one shoe still held in his hand, he follows.

"Remember what I used to tell you, Lou. Safe sex is good sex and I don't care if you are both men, 'kay?"

Louis blushes bright red. "Mum! I'm not a bloody kid anymore. I'm a doctor and all now."

"I know. But just to make sure." she winks.

Louis groans as he lets her kiss his cheek. They say their byes and hop into Louis' beat up Mustang.

"What'd she say?" Zayn asks, playing with Louis' free hand.

"Nothing worth repeating. She's just being a mum."

"Mine texted me during dinner to ask if I had condoms and stuff. That's what had me choking for the next five minutes."

"Oh god," Louis mutters. "How is it that our mothers are so nosy? We're both in our mid-twenties yet they feel the need to molly-coddle us to death."

"It's a lifelong job, I hear," Zayn smirks. "Now hurry up; we've a long night ahead of us."

 

They get to their flat and the moment Louis locks it, he feels himself being shoved to the nearby flat surface, which happens to be a glass-top coffee table.

"You look so good in a suit, babe," Zayn growls, lips moving along Louis' jaw hungrily. He finds a weak spot and begins to suck on it, creating a very visible lovebite right underneath the jugular. "Love seeing you in a suit and tie."

"Zayn," Louis stutters as Zayn's hands undo his belt quickly and his trousers pool around his ankles. A hand finds his half-hard dick and starts to tease the slit.

"Love it when you say my name like that," Zayn mumbles, sucking on his on fingers. He crooks them so that they bulge out from his cheeks and Louis whimpers. His slightly younger boyfriend kneels on the ground and drags Louis closer to the edge of the table so that he can have a clear access to his bum. "So pretty," he whispers, warm air hitting the sensitive patch of skin near Louis' entrance.

"God, Zayn," Louis repeats, mind half gone with pleasure when Zayn starts to lap at the tight furl of muscles and when it's slick with his saliva, sticks in two fingers at once. They are two young men with very active libido, and Louis adjusts to the intrusion easily enough. He makes the mistake of looking down at the precise moment that Zayn straightens up to swallow down his prick.

It's the best part of his day so far. Zayn does this little thing with his tongue and teeth that never fails to reduce Louis into a writhing, moaning state. He can't say half the things he wanted to as Zayn is working on sucking his brains out through his dick. (He can't think of a better way to die, really). He can't help it if there's no one else for him at this point. He is so far gone for Zayn.

Zayn starts to hum and that's really the last straw for Louis. He manages a jumbled warning as Zayn jabs into his prostate and then sucks just on the tip. He comes hard and Zayn keeps working him through it, a hand at his own crotch.

Later, when Louis is feeling like a functional human being again, he pushes Zayn down to the floor so he can return the favour.

 

 

-

 

 

At first Louis passes it off as nothing. He and Zayn are going for a morning jog and of course it takes them forever to actually get out of bed. (And Zayn's lips look so pretty wrapped around Louis' prick and there's an additional ten minutes wasted.) It's no longer morning per se when they get out of the house. The air is damp and gloomy with rain as usual and the little droplets start to fall as they jog out of their neighbourhood. Zayn is lagging behind and he sounds so out of breath even though it's only been ten minutes and they are going slower than the usual.

"Everything alright, Zayno?" Louis asks, stopping for a moment and letting his younger boyfriend catch up to him.

Zayn smiles, albeit with his teeth clenched and a hand clutching at his lung. "Yeah, just felt real out of breath for a mo. Give me a minute to catch my breath yeah?"

Louis nods, standing on his tiptoes to kiss his boyfriend. They stand there on the sidewalk, kissing in the pouring rain.

"Okay, now we're reenacting _The Notebook_ in the bloody storm," Zayn laughs as they pull apart. "Let's go for some brunch."

 

 

-

 

 

"Here's to our third Christmas hols together," Louis says, knee-walking onto bed. It's only three in the afternoon but Zayn's gone to bed claiming that he hadn't slept well the other night. He has a tray of chocolate dipped strawberries, champagne flutes and a bottle of expensive looking champagne. Zayn smiles and beckons for Louis to come close and Louis obliges, setting the tray down behind him. He decides to spice things up and crawls into Zayn's lap instead, nuzzling his head into his shoulder like a cat.

"Good boy," Zayn croons, scratching the top of Louis' head. "Now feed me."

Louis laughs. "You are so lazy, Malik. I swear, it's always me cleaning the house and cooking for you. We're not even married yet I feel like a housewife already."

"You do have the arse for it," Zayn murmurs, hand going down to grope at it.

"Hands off, mister. I've other things on the agenda before we get to the sexy part," Louis says sternly, nipping at Zayn's prominent collarbones. Has he been losing weight? It's true that Zayn's appetite has dropped in the past few weeks but that could mean anything. He's got another issue of his comic series due in a couple days so that could be why; he can get quite carried away whilst working on his fictional world.

Zayn pouts and it takes all Louis has not to just give in. "Can we skip to the part where you're arse is in my face as I eat you out?"

An involuntary moan whimper leaves Louis' lips and he has to tamp down his urges to take off all the offending pieces of fabric on Zayn's body and let him have his wicked way with him. "Nope. Strawberries and chocolate have aphrodisiac properties anyway so this can count as our foreplay."

"Or," Zayn counters, capturing both of Louis' wrists with one hand above his head whilst he starts to stroke Louis with his free hand through the thin layer of his trackies. "We can fuck now and then enjoy the aphrodisiac before we proceed to round two."

It's a tempting offer, and Louis has never been good at resisting temptation. So he shrugs and places the tray on the beside so that they won't kick it off the bed in throes of passion. Once the clothes come off and both of them are half hard, rubbing their naked cocks together, Louis forgets what he had been planning ten minutes ago.

"Turn over," Zayn growls, and Louis does it instantly. His boyfriend is talented in so many ways that it's almost not fair. He turns over happily and kneels up against the headboard, hands curling on the mahogany wood.

His lover breathes over his entrance and his dick jumps against his stomach, smearing a dribble of precum onto his abs. Zayn chuckles, his lips so close to where Louis wants them the most (at the moment. If it were up to him, Louis would spend hours kissing Zayn) When Zayn finally circles the tight furl of muscles with the tip of his tongue, Louis keens and pushes back. He loves this, being so utterly helpless as Zayn eat him out and fingers him until he comes so hard that he nearly whites out.

"Such a good little boy," Zayn purrs, the vibrations shooting straight up Louis' spine. He mewls and spreads his legs out even more, needing more of Zayn.

"Please, god Zayn. Just fuck me already."

A dark laugh leaves Zayn's mouth, which is still on Louis' twitching hole. Louis jumps and nearly hits his head on the headboard. Zayn slides in a lube-slicked finger and crooks it so that it's brushing Louis' prostate but not directly on it. "But babes, I'm in control."

He keeps on doing that, slowly driving Louis nuts with the slow strokes of his tongue and shallow finger-fucking. Surely and slowly, Louis' brain becomes overridden with the need to be filled even more and shagged into oblivion.

"Please," he moans, and he can _hear_ Zayn's smirk with the quiet _snick_ of him uncapping the lube bottle again. There's a slick sound of it spreading onto Zayn's erection and Louis ruts his hips into the sheets in anticipation; it offers him some relieve but what he desires is something warmer and wetter. "Ready?" Zayn asks, kissing the side of his neck. Louis nods, canting his hips so the tip of Zayn's prick brushes his entrance. Zayn lets out a shuddery breath as he sinks in.

It's all too much and nearly not enough. Years of great sex and Louis still feels as if they haven't done this enough times. He loves it when Zayn loses himself in the moment, hips rocking into Louis' and the sound of skin slapping on skin and the loud pants bouncing off the newly painted walls as they edge closer and closer to their climax. Louis loves it when Zayn strokes the inside of his thigh, fingers testing the rim where it's stretch wide around his girth. Sometimes he would hook a finger inside and tease Louis, deep enough so that Louis feels like he can't breathe but not deep enough so that it never touches his prostate. Today, Louis actually forgets to breathe for a second because _that's more than one finger_.

 

He comes so hard, some of his own cum hitting his chin and Zayn follows not long after. He trembles as Zayn rides out his high, never failing to hit Louis' prostate head-on.

 

Afterwards, they lie together in a sheets-free bed, huddled together in a cocoon of spare blankets. Zayn murmurs something nonsensical as Louis drifts off to sleep.

 

 

-

 

 

Louis wakes to the sound of Zayn gasping and coughing.

"Lou?" Zayn whimpers, and Louis hears the sense of urgency and fear in the deep husky tone. He turns around and looks at Zayn.

He seems to have gone bone-white and his eyes are dilated to the point where Louis can hardly see the hazel-brown in them. Zayn's jugular vein is bulging out on the side of his neck and his lips have gone blue.

"Ah fuck."

He gets out of bed as fast as he can and grabs his mobile. He dials the A&E and tell them the address as quickly as he can.

The ambulance comes in ten minutes and it gives Louis just enough time to dress them both and do a quick vitals on Zayn. His heartbeat is too fast, going over 200 a minute and his skin is cold. When the medics arrive, Louis explains the symptoms and tell them what he is suspecting. They hook Zayn up to the ECG and an oxygen mask. Louis is allowed to go on the ambulance in the back with the medics since his specialty is in cancer.

(He hopes that this isn't a relapse. The doctors said that the chance of relapse was forty per cent and Louis had thought that that was pretty low. No, Zayn was not allowed to go back to those terrible tortures they sugar-coated as chemo and radiotherapy sessions. Zayn still couldn't go to that hospital without feeling ill at ease.)

Zayn is wheeled into intensive care unit and looks pretty miffed about it.

"It's not like I'm dying," Zayn complains, taking off the oxygen ask as soon as the medics leave the room. An IV drip has been set up to supply Zayn with some asthma medications as well as some nutrients.

"You couldn't breathe for a whole minute or two, Zayn. This is some serious shit," Louis says glumly.

Five minutes later, a bloke in the telltale doctor's coat walks in. Louis goes to snatch up the pre-diagnosis notes and scans them quickly. He fights off the tears the threaten to fall.

"No, they said that the chances of him getting sick again was only forty!" he hisses at the doctor.

"Louis, I understand that you specialise in cancer but I am sorry to inform you that Zayn's cancer has come back. This time, it seems to be centred around his cardiovascular system. He'll have to remain in ICU for at tonight so that we can run more tests. Then we can determine what stage he is in this time."

"Thanks, doc," Zayn says calmly, too calmly in fact. The doctor leaves and Louis storms out as well.

 

 

-

 

 

It's bad. He is in the second stage of a sarcoma cancer, most likely rooted in his previous cancer. The doctors suspect that some of the tumour has travelled to his heart but it is only a minor concern at the moment. He is cautioned not to do any extensive workouts, anything beyond a leisurely walk around the park is prohibited for him. It breaks Louis' heart to see him like this again, confined to the house and other boring things. After he sends in this month's comic, Zayn is left to his own devices whilst Louis works for most of the time.

When Louis finally gets a weekend off, the first thing Zayn does is greet him with an enthusiastic blowjob right against the door. Then he dressed Louis is a white vest and black skinny jeans before he drags him to the new urban punk bar that has just opened.

It's the opening night so it's half-pound for a pint, which Zayn would have loved under different circumstances. He sips on his bottle of ginger ale as some blond kid takes the stage. He's got his lips pierced at his hair is styled up into a quiff.

"Hello," he says in an Australian accent.

"I'm Luke and I'm just going to sing a song for ya today."

The blond--Luke--starts to strum his accoustic and Zayn flinches when he recognises the first few chord of the song. It's that charity single that Taylor Swift released a few years ago, the one about a four year old who died.

 

 

 _I remember your bare feet down the hallway_  
_I remember your little laugh_  
_Race cars on the kitchen floor, plastic dinosaurs  
_ _I love you to the moon and back_

 _I remember your blue eyes looking into mine_  
_Like we had our own secret club_  
_I remember you dancing before bed time  
_ _Then jumping on me, waking me up_

 _I can still feel you hold my hand, little man_  
_And even the moment I knew_  
_You fought it hard like an army guy  
_ _Remember I leaned in and whispered to you_

 _Come on baby with me, we're gonna fly away from here  
_ _You were my best four years_ . . .

 

 

Zayn can't take it anymore, the lyrics are too close to home and he storms out of the bar, Louis close behind his heel.

" _Jaan_ ," Louis starts but Zayn cuts him off with a pitiful look. It's not long before Zayn doubles over and starts to cough violently. It's scary because it sounds like he is properly hacking up a lung.

"Shit," Zayn murmurs. "Louis, c--"

He collapses.

 

 

-

 

 

Apparently the doctors had been wrong, completely fucking wrong. The cancer, whilst everyone had though Zayn was in remission, had been growing slowly but so surely. It had taken over Zayn's heart and blood, inducing something akin to lymphoma. Now Zayn had no choice but to go through chemo all over again. Every day at four, Louis accompanied came to Zayn's room so that he could set up the daily dose and chat with Zayn whilst he received the treatment.

In just over two weeks, Zayn's face had grown more angular and his body thinner. Whenever Zayn was changing, Louis would hazard a glance only to count even more knobs on his spine that were showing through the thin layer of skin. His boyfriend stopped eating regularly or all that much, really. The day before Christmas Eve, they went out for coffee at their favourite and to Louis' utmost misery, Zayn couldn't keep even a morsel of the bagel down. They went home after Louis paid for the bill in a hurry.

On Louis' birthday, Louis wakes Zayn around three, so that they can start the chemo.

"Not the most romantic thing for your birthday, eh?" Zayn smirks, wincing when Louis puts the needle in a vein. One of the perks of being a doctor is that you can bring home a few medical equipment if required. Louis has signed out the chemo set up for the next two weeks as he won't be working during that time frame.

"I'll woo you yet," Louis replies, because he will. "Just you wait until tea."

"I won't eat anything though," Zayn points out.

"Don't worry, you can just order a virgin daiquiri or summat." Zayn nods, knowing that there's no dissuading Louis once he's his mind on something.

Two hours later, Zayn is shoved into their bedroom with a strict order to dress smart.

"Someone is dressed to impress," Louis wolf-whistles. Zayn is dressed in a long waistcoat and a white button down with a bandana wrapped around his neck like a scarf. Louis opted for a black suit jack and trousers with a graphic shirt.

"Says you, Dr Tomlinson," Zayn teases. "Finally looking the part, yeah?"

"Oh shut up. You know how much I hate wearing these stiff confinements misnamed suits."

"Tight like a knob," Zayn snickers and Louis laughs as well.

"Alright, to NOPI we go."

Zayn gawps like a fish. "You're fucking insane. It's only your birthday dinner."

"Exactly. It's my day so I get to spoil you as much as I like."

Louis orders himself the house special whilst Zayn skips straight to the triple fudge sundae. He has gone through about half of it when Louis steps out of his chair and then kneels on the ground.

"No, Louis please don't," Zayn whispers as the nearly all the restaurant turns to look at them. Two servers come out with a banner that read 'marry me, Zayn Javadd Malik, _jaan_.'

"Zayn Javadd Malik," Louis starts, pulling out a little velvet box from his breast pocket. "I have had the privilege of loving you for the past four years and a bit. We've had our struggle yet you never left me, and I never left you. I know that right now, everything looks out as though the sun has gone away and then we have been left in the dark and the cold. But I have faith in our love, that we can still overcome this obstacle. We've beat it before and we can do it again as long as we've got each other."

"Louis, I have cancer," Zayn breathes out. "I could die literally any second. I don't want to trap you in a love that can only end with a broken heart."

"Then it will be a privilege to have my heart broken by you, Zayn Malik," Louis smirks, tears glistening in his eyes.

"There's no get out of jail free card for me, _jaan_. This is a lifelong commitment, both what you are asking for and want to fight against. Sooner or later, you'll realise that there is no hope."

"It doesn't matter as long as I can go to bed with you in my arms and wake up with the taste of your lips still lingering on mine. Please, marry me."

Zayn pulls Louis up into a kiss. "You bloody fool. Of course I will."

"Brill. We're gonna kick major arse, yeah? Show 'em that we won't be another dot on the statistics."

And they kiss as the entire restaurant erupts into cheers.

 

 

-

 

 

And on Zayn's birthday, they hear the news that will forever change their lives.


End file.
